Xamarin.Essentials

One common query I get all the time from developers is how to get a unique device or application identifier for their mobile app. After deciding to not include an API for this in Xamarin.Essentials we heard a lot of different use cases for it including: Client/Server Communication Login Validation In-App Purchase Verification Licensing Purposes The next obvious question that you may have is why didn't we include it in Xamarin.Essentials if everyone seemed to want it? The answer is actually prett…

Xamarin.Essentials is a new official library from Microsoft (that I worked on) that provides developers with over 30 cross-platform APIs for their mobile apps to tap into to access native features. Yes, this may sound similar to Plugins for Xamarin, but it is an evolution that is super optimized for…

I love multi-targeting for creating libraries, and it is at the core of all of my plugins and Xamarin.Essentials. If you don't know what multi-targeting is don't worry as it is pretty rare that you would need to use it if you are creating apps. Most likely you will want to use multi-targeting in creating cross-platform libraries. In the past you would have to create multiple libraries for each target framework (such as iOS or Android) that you wanted to support if there was platform specific cod…

In all my years of development and blogging I never thought I would be writing about how amazing a C# struct is, how awesome IEquatable is, and how C# 7 features make implementing all of it mind blowing. In Xamarin.Essentials we use the C# struct all over the place to encapsulate "small groups…

Xamarin.Essentials has to be my favorite project that I have worked on at Xamarin so far. Bringing together over 30 native platform specific APIs into a single API that creates a linker safe and optimized library that so far has really delighted developers. I did some surveys last week and everyone…